What’s in a (neoliberal) name?

Media commentators both here and overseas have been falling over themselves recently in a race to administer the last rites to ‘neoliberalism’. Yet the term has become utterly devoid of meaning — a catch-all bogeyman for every apparent or real ill in society and the world.

It may come as a surprise, then, that London classical liberal think tank the Adam Smith Institute has decided to ‘own’ the pejorative label and to wear it with pride.

In the Spring issue of Policy, the think tank’s executive director Sam Bowman explains why. In a nutshell, he finds the term a useful differentiation from fellow travellers such as libertarians — as do an emerging and growing group of younger people who are “uncomfortable with libertarianism’s dogmatic image”, as he puts it, and who “enjoy the naughtiness of re-appropriating a political swear word.”

While I can’t see CIS ever changing its self-designation as a classical liberal organisation, the checklist of nine common beliefs that Sam thinks neoliberals have in common — see the article’s box ‘How to Spot a Neoliberal’ — is a useful exercise in thinking about first principles.

The list is not exclusive to ‘neoliberalism’, nor is it exhaustive — a ‘neoliberal’ in New Zealand has added ‘rule of law’ to the list. And while there’s room for disagreement — for instance, on ‘consequentialism’ (point 2) or on how to do redistribution (point 9) — I think everyone would agree that point 7 captures something fundamental about the classical liberal mindset:

‘We are optimistic about the future, and think the world is getting better’. 

‘And, really, it is: pro-market ideas have taken hold, raising living standards by an extraordinary amount for a huge number of people.’

One positive indicator — cited in the article — is that globally, extreme poverty has fallen from 44% of the world’s population in 1981 to 9.6% today. It’s worth reflecting on this for a moment. Poverty was once considered a natural condition. Now we believe we can and should fix it.

And a further reflection: If partly free markets can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, imagine what freer markets could achieve.